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Is Cohen & Steers Realty Shares L (CSRSX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?
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There are plenty of choices in the Sector - Real Estate category, but where should you start your research? Well, one fund that you should consider investigating is Cohen & Steers Realty Shares L (CSRSX - Free Report) . CSRSX has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 3 (Hold), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.
Objective
CSRSX is one of many Sector - Real Estate funds to choose from. Sector - Real Estate mutual funds are known to invest in real estate investment trusts (REITs). A popular income vehicle thanks to its taxation rules, a REIT is required to pay out at least 90% of its income annually to avoid double taxation. This technique makes securities in these funds high dividend players, and even bond-like in some instances, though their risk is similar to equities.
History of Fund/Manager
Cohen & Steers is based in New York, NY, and is the manager of CSRSX. Cohen & Steers Realty Shares L made its debut in July of 1991, and since then, CSRSX has accumulated about $3.37 billion in assets, per the most up-to-date date available. The fund's current manager is a team of investment professionals.
Performance
Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. CSRSX has a 5-year annualized total return of 5.14% and is in the top third among its category peers. Investors who prefer analyzing shorter time frames should look at its 3-year annualized total return of -0.25%, which places it in the top third during this time-frame.
It is important to note that the product's returns may not reflect all its expenses. Any fees not reflected would lower the returns. Total returns do not reflect the fund's [%] sale charge. If sales charges were included, total returns would have been lower.
When looking at a fund's performance, it is also important to note the standard deviation of the returns. The lower the standard deviation, the less volatility the fund experiences. Over the past three years, CSRSX's standard deviation comes in at 21.47%, compared to the category average of 15.38%. The standard deviation of the fund over the past 5 years is 20.45% compared to the category average of 16.06%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.
Risk Factors
With a 5-year beta of 0.98, the fund is likely to be as volatile as the market average. Alpha is an additional metric to take into consideration, since it represents a portfolio's performance on a risk-adjusted basis relative to a benchmark, which in this case, is the S&P 500. The fund has produced a negative alpha over the past 5 years of -7.95, which shows that managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.
Expenses
As competition heats up in the mutual fund market, costs become increasingly important. Compared to its otherwise identical counterpart, a low-cost product will be an outperformer, all other things being equal. Thus, taking a closer look at cost-related metrics is vital for investors. In terms of fees, CSRSX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.88% compared to the category average of 0.96%. From a cost perspective, CSRSX is actually cheaper than its peers.
This fund requires a minimum initial investment of $10,000, while there is no minimum for each subsequent investment.
Fees charged by investment advisors have not been taken into considiration. Returns would be less if those were included.
Bottom Line
Overall, Cohen & Steers Realty Shares L ( CSRSX ) has a neutral Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, Cohen & Steers Realty Shares L ( CSRSX ) looks like a somewhat average choice for investors right now.
This could just be the start of your research on CSRSXin the Sector - Real Estate category. Consider going to www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds for additional information about this fund, and all the others that we rank as well for additional information. If you want to check out our stock reports as well, make sure to go to Zacks.com to see all of the great tools we have to offer, including our time-tested Zacks Rank.
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Is Cohen & Steers Realty Shares L (CSRSX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?
There are plenty of choices in the Sector - Real Estate category, but where should you start your research? Well, one fund that you should consider investigating is Cohen & Steers Realty Shares L (CSRSX - Free Report) . CSRSX has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 3 (Hold), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.
Objective
CSRSX is one of many Sector - Real Estate funds to choose from. Sector - Real Estate mutual funds are known to invest in real estate investment trusts (REITs). A popular income vehicle thanks to its taxation rules, a REIT is required to pay out at least 90% of its income annually to avoid double taxation. This technique makes securities in these funds high dividend players, and even bond-like in some instances, though their risk is similar to equities.
History of Fund/Manager
Cohen & Steers is based in New York, NY, and is the manager of CSRSX. Cohen & Steers Realty Shares L made its debut in July of 1991, and since then, CSRSX has accumulated about $3.37 billion in assets, per the most up-to-date date available. The fund's current manager is a team of investment professionals.
Performance
Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. CSRSX has a 5-year annualized total return of 5.14% and is in the top third among its category peers. Investors who prefer analyzing shorter time frames should look at its 3-year annualized total return of -0.25%, which places it in the top third during this time-frame.
It is important to note that the product's returns may not reflect all its expenses. Any fees not reflected would lower the returns. Total returns do not reflect the fund's [%] sale charge. If sales charges were included, total returns would have been lower.
When looking at a fund's performance, it is also important to note the standard deviation of the returns. The lower the standard deviation, the less volatility the fund experiences. Over the past three years, CSRSX's standard deviation comes in at 21.47%, compared to the category average of 15.38%. The standard deviation of the fund over the past 5 years is 20.45% compared to the category average of 16.06%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.
Risk Factors
With a 5-year beta of 0.98, the fund is likely to be as volatile as the market average. Alpha is an additional metric to take into consideration, since it represents a portfolio's performance on a risk-adjusted basis relative to a benchmark, which in this case, is the S&P 500. The fund has produced a negative alpha over the past 5 years of -7.95, which shows that managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.
Expenses
As competition heats up in the mutual fund market, costs become increasingly important. Compared to its otherwise identical counterpart, a low-cost product will be an outperformer, all other things being equal. Thus, taking a closer look at cost-related metrics is vital for investors. In terms of fees, CSRSX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.88% compared to the category average of 0.96%. From a cost perspective, CSRSX is actually cheaper than its peers.
This fund requires a minimum initial investment of $10,000, while there is no minimum for each subsequent investment.
Fees charged by investment advisors have not been taken into considiration. Returns would be less if those were included.
Bottom Line
Overall, Cohen & Steers Realty Shares L ( CSRSX ) has a neutral Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, Cohen & Steers Realty Shares L ( CSRSX ) looks like a somewhat average choice for investors right now.
This could just be the start of your research on CSRSXin the Sector - Real Estate category. Consider going to www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds for additional information about this fund, and all the others that we rank as well for additional information. If you want to check out our stock reports as well, make sure to go to Zacks.com to see all of the great tools we have to offer, including our time-tested Zacks Rank.